In Denmark, evictions and demolitions are remaking “non-Western” neighborhoods

A government program uses demolition and relocation to remake neighborhoods populated by “non-Western” immigrants, poverty or crime.

After fleeing Iran decades ago, Nasrin Bahrampour and her husband settled into a bright apartment overlooking the university town of Aarhus, Denmark. They filled it with potted plants, family photographs and Persian rugs, and raised two children there.

Now they are forced to leave their home under a government program which effectively obliges them. integration in certain working-class neighborhoods where many “non-Western” immigrants live.

In practice, this means that thousands of apartments will be demolished and sold to investors deprived or replaced. with new housing aimed at wealthier (and often non-immigrant) residents, to increase social diversity.

Danish news media described the program as “ greatest social experiment of this century. .” Critics say it is “bulldozing social policy”.

The government says the plan aims to dismantle “parallel societies” – that officials describe as segregated enclaves where immigrants can access. do not participate in wider society and do not learn Danish, even though they benefit from the country's generous welfare system.

Opponents claim that This is a brutal and gratuitous form of ethnic discrimination in a country where income inequality is low and the level of deprivation in poor areas is much less pronounced than in many countries.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">And while many other governments have experimented with solutions to combat urban deprivation and segregation, experts say imposing a reduction in social housing largely based on ethnic origin of residents is an unusual, brutal and counterproductive solution.

In areas like Vollsmose, a suburb of Odense where more than two thirds of residents are from from non-Western countries – mainly Muslim – the government mandate results in large-scale demolitions.

Vollsmose, Denmark

Will be demolished

Can be demolished